Press release

Italy coach Barbolini: We played well from beginning to end, in every set, for the entire match

Italy's Simone Gioli spikes past two Korean blockers

Sapporo, Japan, November 11, 2011 - Press Conference, Italy v Korea: A strong Italian team rolled past Korea in a surprisingly easy 61-minute match on Friday in Sapporo. Italy coach Massimo Barbolini now looks ahead to a very tough match against the Brazilian team tomorrow.

Italy coach Massimo Barbolini: Today I congratulate our team, as for us it was a good re-start against Korea. I think we played well from beginning to end, in every set, for the entire match. This matters for the next match too, as we have to pay - in some way - the same attention, the same concentration. We play against Brazil, a very strong team. I think now we can play a good match because we have the skills to do it. It will be the most difficult match for us from the start of the competition.

On supporting role of Del Core up front: I think in every match there must be many players doing well, especially when we finish a match in four sets. Usually we play with many players over 10 points, for us it’s normal. Our team is very balanced, though sometimes there are some players who do more. But I’m very happy with them.

Italy captain Eleonora Lo Bianco: I think that we put our attention into this game because Korea is very strong and can give us many difficulties. We pushed with our serve to set up our blocking and defence, so they could not play their combinations.

I’m satisfied with our victory. I think day after day we think about the game we have to play. For tomorrow I think it will be a very tough match. We want to get more points.

Italy player Carolina del Pilar Costagrande: For today’s victory we did our best and concentrated well, so we won. Tomorrow’s game will be hard but we will do our best and try to show our uniqueness.

Korea coach Kim Hyung-Silon recent struggles versus Japan: The level of our respective players are about the same, but the difference is that Japan plays combinations much better. Our players might have a chance tomorrow if our combinations are good.

Korea captain Kim Se-Youngon reception: Today we did not play our combinations well. For serving and reception, players who were subbed out were usually in charge of that; that’s why we didn’t succeed.

On having only two players with Olympic experience: The young players don’t know how important the Olympics are, so we tried to talk to them all the time about the importance of the Olympics and how big it is.

Kim Yeon-Koung explained after the match that they have a big game tomorrow, and she was resting up for that. ?